Australia's weather to become 'more intense and extreme'

Expect Australia's weather to become even *more* chaotic. 

Expect Australia's weather to become even *more* chaotic. 

Australia's weather will become more intense and extreme in the coming decades due to global warming.

That's according to a new climate report which has given rise to renewed calls for better "climate adaptation" for Australian communities.

The biennial State of the Climate report by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO comes as the country battles its worst flooding event in decades.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report "confirms what we know" but nonetheless "reminds us that we need to prepare for the worst".

Australia's climate has warmed by 1.47C since records began in 1910 and will continue to warm, the report states, "with more extremely hot days and fewer extremely cool days". Sea levels have also risen 25cm since 1880.

Eugowra following the floods. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

It also warns of longer periods of drought and a longer fire season in the south and east, more intense bursts of heavy rainfall, more intense storms, and fewer but more damaging cyclones in the coming years and decades. 

"You already have governments talking about changing land use in the future, how to better prepare our emergency services, how to better prepare our health system for the extreme events," Ms Plibersek told ABC News on Wednesday.

Cardiologist and ANU Human Futures Fello Arngretta Hunter said the report offered incentives for "rapid mitigation and for increased attention for climate adaptation in communities around Australia".

Senior Catastrophe Research Analyst at Aon Tom Mortlock said while we are in the midst of floods, climate models indicate an increase in extreme heat and bushfire risk so "we need to make sure we avoid planning for the most recent event."

Town of Bilpin on December 19, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. Picture: David Gray/Getty Images

He added while COP discussed climate policies aimed at keeping global warming below 1.5C by 2100, "this report reminds us we are almost there already in Australia" at 1.47C.

As flooding ravaged the central western NSW town of Eugowra last week, emergency management and agriculture minister Murray Watt acknowledged Australia needed stronger laws to prevent construction in disaster-prone areas and to make homes more resilient to natural disasters. 

“We’ve got all these legacy decisions that have been made by past governments about approving development in floodplains and that’s where the mitigation and homebuyer backs can play a role. But what we need to do at a minimum is stop approving developments in areas that we know are going to flood."

Flooding in Eugowra. Picture: Twitter

He said work around how we could revamp our planning and development laws across the country would be led by the NSW Government to be considered by the national cabinet.

Oceans around Australia were acidifying fast than at any time in the past 300 million years, the report also found.